Pitching In and Helping Out
Pitching In And Helping Out is the fourth episode of the first season. Plot Stacy is up on a ladder trying to fix the ticket counter’s clock, while Schemer is dusting off the Jukebox with his tie. When Stacy asks for his help, he claims he’s too busy. Stacy protests that the clock must be fixed so the passengers can board their trains on time. Schemer thinks that it’s better for the clock to be broken; this means the passengers can spend more money in the arcade. Schemer then tries to sell Stacy a “brand new, antique teapot” for five dollars. Stacy thinks it’s too dirty, causing him to lower the price to four dollars, then three. Stacy points out that the teapot has a hole in the bottom. Schemer claims that that is for pouring two cups of tea at once, and drops the price down to two dollars. Stacy still says no, so Schemer leaves the teapot on the information desk so she can think it over. Matt and Tanya arrive from the platform. Schemer greets them then trips over his shoelaces as he walks away. Tanya asks Stacy if she can climb up to help, but Stacy says no: she wants her to keep an eye on the ladder. Matt is asked to grab a screwdriver. Tanya asks Stacy what’s wrong with the clock. Stacy demonstrates by spinning the hands, which makes a springing sound. Both Stacy and Tanya like the sound, but the clock is needed to keep everyone on time. Matt asks Stacy if he can keep a ball of red string he found with the screwdriver. Tanya wonders what you can do with just string, prompting Stacy to recall something her grandmother once said: “Let my life be like a piece of string: long, strong and soft at the end.” Mr. Conductor appears on top of the clock wearing a chef hat and a long red apron, carrying two wooden spoons. He protests that Stacy’s grandmother never said such a thing. Stacy admits that she made up the saying herself. “Not bad, for a beginner,” replies Mr. Conductor. Stacy thanks him and then leaves to find some oil. Mr. Conductor drums on the side of the clock with the wooden spoons, disappears, and then reappears on top of the information desk. Matt asks Mr. Conductor if he actually knew Stacy’s grandmother. He reveals that she ran Shining Time Station years ago, which is when he first met her. She used to know which train was coming just by the sound of its whistle, and took good care of both her trains and her passengers. She always knew how to have fun better than anyone else. Tanya protests that everyone knows how to have fun. Mr. Conductor replies that that idea isn’t true, and explains that everybody likes to have fun, but not everyone knows how to go about it. Stacy does, and so did her grandmother. Matt asks if Stacy’s grandmother ever played with string. Mr. Conductor replies she used to play Cat’s Cradle. Tanya tries demonstrating, but only gets her fingers tangled up. Matt quickly helps her out. Mr. Conductor congratulates him, saying that it always feels good to help someone out. To the engines on the Island of Sodor, this is called feeling “Really Useful.” Clicking his spoons together, he tells them the story of how Thomas felt really useful when he helped use a breakdown train to rescue James the Red Engine. Thomas now works in the goods yard at the station, pushing and pulling freight cars into place. Every day he sees Sir Topham Hatt, who kindly tells Thomas that, while he may not be as big or as fast as Gordon, he can still be a really useful engine. While shunting, Thomas notices a strange green coach and two cranes and his driver explains that this is the breakdown train and it is used to lift engines, coaches, or freight cars that may come off the line. '' ''One day, Thomas is pushing freight cars when he hears an engine whistling and calling for help. The engine is James, who is the newest engine on Sodor, and he is being pushed by freight cars causing him to go far faster than normal. To make matters worse, his brake blocks are on fire. As the trucks laugh, James disappears in the distance. Although he cannot do anything, Thomas is eager for the trucks to be taught a lesson. '' ''Soon an alarm rings and the signalman tells Thomas that James has come off the line, so the breakdown train is needed. Thomas is coupled to the breakdown train and heads to the scene of the accident as fast as he can. '' ''Further down the line, James has crashed into a field and fallen on his side. His crew checks him for any damage and tells James that the fault lies in his wooden brakes which were unable to stop him. Thomas arrives with the breakdown train and removes the cars that were still on the rails from the scene while the breakdown train recovers the cars which had overturned. Thomas works harder than ever before, going backwards and forwards with the very sorry trucks until they have all been removed. '' ''Soon it is time to lift James back onto the rails. After having the chains attached to him, James is lifted by the cranes and is returned to his proper position. James is unable to move by himself, so Thomas helps him back to the shed as the sun sets. Waiting for them is Sir Topham Hatt, who congratulates Thomas on all his hard work. He tells James that he is going to get a new coat of paint and some proper brakes fitted and then rewards a delighted Thomas with a branch line of his own. '' ''Nowadays, Thomas could not be happier. Not only does he have a branch line, but he also has two new coaches named Annie and Clarabel. He now gets to pull trains all day and often sees Edward and Henry. Gordon is always in a hurry, but still whistles greetings to Thomas who whistles back. Tanya thinks that Thomas must have felt important pulling the Breakdown Train, but Mr. Conductor points out that he was more concerned about helping James. Matt wishes that someone could help them figure out what to do with the string. Mr. Conductor replies that they’ll have to help each other out with that one, because he has to go home to feed his parrot a carrot and stretch out some spaghetti. Matt remembers that Stacy taught him how to make flowers out of string, and proceeds to show Tanya using only a fork and some drinking straws. Mr. Conductor, now dressed in his usual attire, appears by his front door to compliment them on their progress. He claims that string can do a lot with itself. When Tanya complains that that doesn’t make sense, he proceeds to show them a magic bubble about shapes made out of string. This gives the kids some new ideas, and they run off to gather some supplies. Harry comes out of his workshop and walks towards the Jukebox. He’s had a song in his head since this morning, and wants to hear it played. The nickel drops inside the slot, but no one in the band wants to go pick it up, being comfortable where they are. They play the song “Railroad Corral.” Matt and Tanya come into the workshop, where Harry is fixing a sign with a broken chain. The sign used to hang on the ticket booth long ago and reads: “Shining Time Station: Trains from here… to Everywhere!” Harry is using a soldering iron to fix the chain. Tanya tells him all about their day so far, from their escapades with string to Mr. Conductor’s story. Harry tests the chain by hanging the sign on a hook, but the chain breaks. Matt offers him some string instead, which proves to be just the ticket. Mr. Conductor appears on the Information Desk again, complimenting them on how busy they were. Matt only has a little bit of string left, and Tanya wants to do something really special with it. Mr. Conductor says that string can be a great problem solver as well, which reminds him of James. Tanya doesn’t think that a train can be fixed with only string. Mr. Conductor agrees, explaining that people are very clever on the Island of Sodor, and tells them the story of how a shoelace and a newspaper once helped James pull his train. James is settling into his new life nicely. Sir Topham Hatt tells James that he is a mixed-traffic engine, so can take coaches or freight cars easily but must learn from his mistakes. James, who had a nasty accident with freight cars on his first day, knew exactly what Sir Topham Hatt meant. '' ''James' first job of the day is to double-head a train of coaches with Edward, who warns him that the coaches don't like being bumped. People have arrived on the platform to admire James, who quickly gets full of himself and lets off steam without warning causing a shower of water to fall on Sir Topham's brand new top hat. It is time for the train to leave and James tries to get out as fast as he can which angers Edward and the coaches. This causes trouble at the first station, when James causes two of the coaches to run beyond the platform forcing the train to reverse to let the passengers out. However, it seems that no one knows what happened with Sir Topham Hatt, much to James's relief. '' ''Next James and Edward stop at the station on Thomas' new branch line, where the tank engine greets James before leaving. The train then passes the field where James had crashed. Finally, the journey ends and after unloading the passengers James and Edward head for home, with James still wondering what Sir Topham will have to say about his top hat. '' ''The next morning, Sir Topham Hatt visits James in the shed and gives him a severe telling off and warns him that if anything else happens, then James will be punished by being painted blue. James does not like this idea at all. '' ''However, rather than calm James down, this only serves to make him angry and later that day he roughly bumps his coaches, moaning that he has to fetch them. To make matters worse, none of the passengers dare go near him, which makes James even crosser. James pulls the coaches very roughly and tries to run as fast as he can. Eventually the coaches force James to stop. His driver explains that James' rough treatment has caused a leak in the coaches pipes. The crew inspects the damage and the conductor's only recommendation is to plug the leak with newspaper and a leather bootlace. However none of the crew have a leather bootlace on them. They ask the passengers and the conductor finds a man with a leather bootlace, who initially refuses to give it up. The conductor explains that without the bootlace, the train can not continue. The other passengers get very angry, both at the man and at the railway. Under pressure, the man finally hands over the bootlace and the damage is temporarily repaired allowing James to finish the journey. '' ''James proceeds on his way with the coaches, knowing that he is going to be in a lot of trouble with Sir Topham Hatt. Stacy is searching by the lost and found for something. Mr. Conductor asks if he can help, but Stacy says she has to learn how to fix the clock on her own. She suddenly remembers where she left the oil, but when she looks in one of the trunks, she comes up empty handed. She finally asks Mr. Conductor to tell her where the oil is. He replies she had left it on the floor in the ticket booth yesterday. He complains that the clock has made him late to his appointments for nine years, three months, eight hours, two minutes and twenty-three seconds. Stacy teasingly smiles at him, and Mr. Conductor admits that he made that one up. Stacy thanks Mr. Conductor, who disappears just as Schemer walks in. Stacy’s goodbye makes Schemer think she’s talking to furniture. He once again trips over his shoelaces, as he’s too busy to even tie them. When he tries, he accidentally pulls the laces out of his shoe completely. He angrily pulls out the laces from his other shoe too, claiming he doesn’t need them. When he tries walking, the shoes fall off his feet altogether. Stacy whispers to Matt and Tanya that they should give the last of their string to Schemer. Tanya and Matt protest, as they wanted to do something special with it. Stacy replies that helping someone out is special. A woman wearing a wetsuit, scuba gear and flippers flops into the station carrying a bowl of goldfish, asking when the next train to Lucky Lake is leaving. Stacy replies that it’s twenty minutes, and the woman leaves for the platform. Schemer points out that the woman wasn’t wearing shoes either, claiming some people know how to live. Stacy asks the kids if they will give Schemer the string, because otherwise he’ll be complaining about his shoes all day. Grudgingly, Tanya hands it over to an excited Schemer. He again tries selling the teapot to Stacy for a dollar, then fifty cents, and then decides to give it to the kids as a present. Matt wonders what they can do with it. Stacy provides the solution: she puts the string flowers the kids made inside the old pot, making it into a decorative flower pot for the Information Desk. Harry comes in with his repaired sign for the kids to hang up, and then proceeds to help Stacy fix the clock. The episode ends with the repaired clock ticking away, while everyone cheers at a job well done. Characters * Mr. Conductor * Schemer * Stacy * Matt * Tanya * Harry * Thomas (mentioned) * James (mentioned) Thomas Stories * Thomas Saves the Day Thomas has to take the breakdown train and help James when the silly freight cars push him off the line. He earns a branch line and two coaches named Anne and Clarabelle for his heroics. * James Learns a Leson James and Edward pull passenger train together. James is excited about how splendid he must look. He whishes steam and gets water on Sir Topham Hat’s new hat which gets him into trouble. Next day James is cross and behaves roughly with his coaches. He tears a hole in his coach’s breakpipe by going to fast and they have to barrow shoe laces from a man to mend the hole. Jukebox Band Segment Song * Railroad Coral Trivia *Mr. Conductor has lived at Shining Time Station since Stacy’s grandmother ran it. *Mr. Conductor keeps a parrot in his house on the mural. *This is the first mention of Stacy’s grandmother. She will not appear in person until Season 3. *This is the first time a Thomas story isn’t started by Mr. Conductor blowing his whistle. Instead, he clicks two wooden spoons together. *Mr. Conductor demonstrates that he can drum using two wooden spoons. This is a nod to Ringo Starr’s career as a drummer for The Beatles. *Annette Holloway, who played the "Scuba Woman," also served as the show's assistant stage manager. *At one point Mr. Conductor dubs Tanya “Tanya Lasagna”. This nickname is referred to again in Season 2 by Mr. Conductor’s cousin (George Carlin). 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